Introduction

For more than twenty-five years, I loved my job as an NHL referee. Moreover, the twenty-odd after-years of being involved with benefit hockey games, golf tournaments, and the like, are every bit as interesting. So interesting, in fact, that a former colleague and several of those players whom I personally tossed into the penalty box have encouraged this moment by saying to me, “Why don’t you write a book?”

I have watched the game change, from when I came into the League in 1960 and there was one American player in the NHL, to the present day, where about 20 percent of the players are American, 50 percent Canadian, and the remaining 30 percent are comprised of highly skilled players from Europe and Russia, making the game truly international in stature.

I have been a whistle blower in hockey games all over the United States, Canada, and Europe, and have rubbed elbows on the ice with legends of the game, like Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, and Wayne Gretzky. I put them, and hundreds of others, in the penalty box because they deserved it. Rules are rules, and I called ’em whenever anyone broke ’em.

As a referee, this is my tale. I will take you from the “good old days” when we hauled a goal judge right onto the ice to show us where the puck had actually gone into the net, to the present day, where instant replays decide the outcome of the game.

The World Hockey Association and the expansion of the NHL forever changed the complexion of the game of hockey, and I was fortunate to have a rink-side seat through those tumultuous years. I invite you to join me . . .